Mercer Oliver Wyman has appointed Julia Hobart and Denis Bastin as Directors in Mercer Oliver Wyman’s London Office. Both have transferred from the Manager Advisory arm of Mercer Investment Consulting.
Hobart and Bastin will focus on the development of Mercer Oliver Wyman’s practice advising asset management firms on business and financial strategy, organizational structures, operational issues, client delivery and distribution, and investment process. They each bring considerable experience as former investment managers and consultants.
“The addition of these two senior and well-respected directors brings a new dimension to our advisory work with asset managers,” says John Drzik, President of Mercer Oliver Wyman. “This sector of financial services is undergoing significant structural change, and our strengthened capabilities will put us in a prime position to support senior management as they consider their responses to this change.”
Denis Bastin has thirty years of experience in the investment field, as a portfolio manager and working in marketing, sales and business management. He joined Mercer Investment Consulting in 1996, when the Manager Advisory practice was officially formed. Prior to Mercer, he worked at Crdit Lyonnais, establishing their North American investment management operation, as well as an offshore Private Banking operation. He also spent nineteen years with Paribas in both Paris and New York.
Julia Hobart has over twenty years’ experience in the investment field, having worked both as an investment manager and as a consultant. She joined Mercer in 1989 and established Mercer’s Investment Consulting business in Continental Europe, which she headed for five years. She then established the Manager Advisory practice in 1996. Before this, she was a senior portfolio manager with Mercury Asset Management (now Merrill Lynch Investment Managers), where she managed UK pension funds and European mutual funds.